ABSURD TREATMENT OF THE HOOF. 639 



Knowing this, before the animal is put to any service, the 

 precaution is taken to have it shod. Indeed, usually long 

 before this period arrives, the creature has to submit to 

 the unreasonable routine which is for ever after to domin- 

 ate its life of slavery. The farrier is repeatedly called in 

 to trim and dress the young creature's hoofs, to rasp and 

 cut them in an unmeaning fashion, so as to keep them 

 in a good form for shoeing. When at last shoes are 

 applied, the foot has to submit to an amount of alteration, 

 cutting, rasping, and beautifying, which might cause us 

 to exclaim with Snout, ' O Bottom (or rather foot), thou 

 art changed ! what do I see on thee ? ' The hoof has 

 been brought into a shape conformable to the prevailing 

 fashion . 



Coutumes, opinion, reines de notre sort, 

 Vous reglez des mortels et la vie et la mort. 



So writes Voltaire, and if he had been an observing 

 horseman, he would doubtless have included horses with 

 mortals. By dint of knife and rasp, the dimensions of 

 the organ, the foundation of the edifice, have been 

 greatly reduced, and the animal rests on a narrower basis. 

 The sole has been carefully denuded of its protecting horn 

 until the thin pellicle of newly secreted material is exposed 

 and readily yields to the thumb. The frog is ' scien- 

 tifically ' reduced on every side, the heels or commissures 

 are well opened up, the bars are reduced in size and fan- 

 tastically delineated, and the portion of the sole between 

 them and the crust — the seat of corn — is carefully carved 

 out a la Miles. The plantar surface of the foot altogether 

 is much more concave than it was previously, and it looks 

 like a masterpiece of workmanship. It may present 



